Surprise! Fast Food Is Still Bad for You

When Supersize Me -- a documentary about the health problems one man got from eating nothing but McDonald's fast food -- came out in 2004, McDonald'salmost immediately stopped using the term. People no longer wanted to "supersize" their meals.

Not surprisingly, there was a sharp increase in the company's healthy eating index corresponding to about the same time. Sadly, according to a study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, McDonald's and its cohorts still haven't done a good enough job of improving the quality of what is being served to customers.

The researchers used a scale from 0 (least healthy) to 100 (most healthy) to rate the food. The scale included variables accounting for fruit, vegetable, and whole-grain servings, as well as levels of oils, saturated fats, sodium, and sugar. On average, the fast-food chains yielded a score of 45. For comparison's sake, the average score for all food available to Americans is 60.

Fourteen years later, use of the words "healthy" and "low-fat" have increased 86% and 33%, respectively. And yet, the average score among fast-food chains over a decade-and-a-half is only up to 49.

Source: American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Researchers did point out some positive steps, like the fact that McDonald's recently replaced french fries in its Happy Meal with apple slices. On the whole, however, the actual improvements aren't matching the rhetoric coming from fast-food companies.

What's it mean for Fools?It's difficult to say what types of implications this could have for investors. While the organic and healthy food movement is strong in the United States and shows no signs of slowing down, fast food still accounts for roughly 15% of all food eaten by Americans, and is becoming more and more popular in developing nations. At the end of the day, it would be wise for investors to make sure the companies they own in this industry are making progress in this area, such as McDonald's, Burger King , and Jack in the Box .

Investors interested in seeing what this all means for industry-leading McDonald's should check out our top analyst's premium report on the company. Click here now to find out whether a buying opportunity has emerged for this global juggernaut.

Fool contributor Brian Stoffel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Burger King Worldwide, McDonald's, and PepsiCo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway, McDonald's, and PepsiCo. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.